Tyre recycler determined for Longford plant to go ahead

Green Distillation Technologies, the Australian company that has proposed building the $8.5 million plant to process end of life car and truck tyres at Longford, Tasmania is still determined to proceed despite encountering delays in securing Government approvals.

GDT’s Australian developed technology is a world first and recycles end of life car and truck tyres into oil, carbon and the steel reinforcing with a typical end of life 10 kg car tyre yielding 4kg of carbon, 1.5kg of steel and 4 litres of oil, while a 70kg truck tyre provides 28 kg of carbon, 11 kg of steel and 28 litres of oil.

GDT Chief Operating Officer Trevor Bayley who was in Tasmania last week for meetings with the Government and Northern Midlands Council said that they had applied for Development Approval for the plant, but still had to secure an OK from the Environmental Protection Authority.

“From my discussions, I believe that the Government is aware that they have a responsibility to fix the problem of tyre recycling in Tasmania and that the first step should be to put it on a sound financial footing.

“Clearly the Longford site, where there is an estimated 900,000 tyres waiting for processing is a priority, although of course this stockpile is being added to by the 480,000 to 500,000 end of life car and truck tyres that Tasmania generates each year. We estimate that it will take three years to get rid of the existing stockpile.

“The obvious place to start with generating funds to pay for tyre recycling is with the fee paid by each motorist when they dispose of their old tyres and get a new one fitted. This amount varies with different retailers across the State, but could be as high as $8 to $9 and of this a fixed amount of $2.50 is paid for collection and storage, but not for end of life management” Mr Bayley said.

GDT had initially planned to start work on the site in Longford on November last year and estimates that it will take six months for the plant to become operational from the time they receive Government approval to proceed.

Mr Bayley said that their plant in Warren New South Wales is going through the commissioning stage after operating as a test facility since 2009 and is now producing their first commercial quantities of oil, carbon and steel from old car and truck tyres.

“We have been operating the pilot plant in Warren western New South Wales since 2009 and the upgrade to full production will see it capable of processing 19,000 tonnes, or a mix of 658,000 car and truck tyres per year. This represents approximately 3% of the 24 million end-of-life tyres that are generated in Australia each year.

“The reason we have been attracted to Tasmania is entirely due to the work of Tim Chugg of Tyrecycle Tasmania who has been to our plant at Warren and seen for himself how it works and came away enthusiastic to establish a plant in Tasmania.

“By the time Tyrecycle Tasmania’s stockpile has been recycled it is anticipated that we will have extended the scope of our operations to include mining and agricultural tyres for which there is currently no solution.

“Our process is unique as the oil produced from the GDT process can be used as a heating fuel, direct into some stationary diesel engines or is capable of further refinement into automotive or aviation fuels, while the carbon is a high grade product that can replace those sourced from fossil fuels and the steel is returned directly to tyre manufacturers for reuse.

“The process is not only emission free but the recycled oil is used as the heat source for the production process.

“It is the only process available in the world that remanufactures the rubber from old tyres into a different energy form as the other recycling methods merely change the shape or appearance of the rubber into crumbs or chips,” Mr Bayley said.

Tim Chugg of Tyre Recycle Tasmania said that he believed that the GDT technology is by far the best option to recycle end of life tyres in Tasmania.

“I have been trying to get a viable recycling plant established at Longford for sixteen years and I am still committed to work to get it operating.

“The delays have been frustrating and I only hope some wise heads will prevail to come up with a solution as the stockpile of old tyres at Longford just gets larger.

“Tasmanians are very environmentally conscious and I am sure that everyone in the State will want to see a solution found for the disposal of end-of-life tyres, which are such a major environmental problem,” Tim Chugg said.

About Green Distillation Technologies: GDT is an Australian company which has developed technology to recycle end‐of‐life tyres into carbon, oil and steel.

Released for Green Distillation Technologies by Dennis Rutzou Public Relations (www.drpr.com.au)